U.S. Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Sovereign Immunity Case
On Friday, December 8, 2017, the United States Supreme Court agreed to review the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision in Lundgren v. Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, 187 Wn.2d 857, 389 P.3d 569 (2017). The petition for certiorari, which was filed by the Tribe’s general counsel, David Hawkins, working closely with HLFT lawyers Art Harrigan, Tyler Farmer, Kristin Ballinger, and John Burzynski, asks the Court to decide whether a court’s exercise of in rem jurisdiction overcomes the jurisdictional bar of tribal sovereign immunity when the tribe has not waived immunity and Congress has not unequivocally abrogated it. Link here.
The petition for certiorari earlier was chosen as a “petition of the day” by SCOTUSblog, which includes links to the briefing to the Court.